1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device with a gripper conveyor and a conveying-away device as well as means for transferring two-dimensional product units fed by the gripper conveyor, to the conveying-away device amid the formation of an imbricate formation, wherein the device forms a transfer region, in which the transfer of the product units from the gripper conveyor to the conveying-away device takes place.
2. Description of Related Art
With the manufacture of newspapers, magazines, periodicals, brochures or similar printed products, there often exists the necessity of feeding larger quantities of printed products to an intermediate storage. With regard to these printed products, it is often the case of intermediate products such as printed sheets, newspaper bundles or complete supplements, which are fed to further processing after the intermediate storage.
The necessity of the intermediate storage can have different reasons. Thus an intermediate storage can be necessary, for example, if the processing device arranged upstream processes and conveys further more printed products than can be received by a processing device arranged downstream, and the processing speed of the two devices cannot be matched to one another. The intermediate storage in this case serves as a buffer storage. Thus for example, rotation printing machines are operated at a defined speed for reasons of method technology as well as method economics. The ejection of the printed sheets from the rotation is set as a result of this and cannot be adapted to the processing capacity of the subsequent devices. Accordingly, the printed sheets must be led to an intermediate storage until the further processing, if the subsequent processing devices do not have sufficient processing capacities. For reasons of method economy, one can intentionally operate the processing device arranged upstream deliberately with a maximal speed, in order to provide as rapid as possible capacities for processing a new charge of printed products.
A further reason for the intermediate storage can be due to the fact that certain parts of a printed product to be manufactured, such as e.g. a newspaper, are produced in advance and intermediately stored as an intermediate product until the completion of the printed product. This is particularly the case when the printed product contains parts are current with regard to the day and which are only produced shortly before the completion of the printed product. The daily-current parts are then led together with the product parts fed from the intermediate storage, into the finished printed product.
A known type of intermediate storage is the winding-up of printed products continuously fed in an imbricate formation, together with a winding belt under tensile stress, into a product reel. The product reel can e.g. be wound on a winding core.
With regard to a functionally reliable handling and a space-saving storage, the product reel has significant advantages compared to other types of intermediate storage. The further processing of the printed products is effected by way of winding the products off from the product reel as an imbricate stream. Thus, for example, DE-A-42 21 911, DE-A-3532403 and DE-C-34 25 673 describe devices and methods for storing printed products in imbricate formation on a reel.
Before the winding up, the printed products at a transfer device must yet be brought into an imbricate formation depending on the manner in which the printed products are fed to the winding device. Thus the printed products, for example, can be fed to the winding device by way of a gripper conveyor in a manner held by individual grippers. The printed products are released from the grippers at a transfer device and are deposited in imbricate formation onto a conveyor belt. The imbricate stream is led away via the conveyor belt and fed to a winding station.
It is basically known to transfer printed products individually fed by a gripper conveyor to a belt conveyor in imbricate formation, at a transfer device. Thus, for example, DE-C-29 11 350 describes a device and a method for the transfer of individual printed products fed by way of grippers of a gripper conveyor, to a belt conveyor amid the formation of an imbricate formation. For this, the printed products with their free product edges in front are fed to the belt conveyor and are applied onto the previously released printed product in a manner shifted in the conveying direction. The still held printed product with this step assumes an orientation which is inclined with respect to the vertical, wherein the free product edge is aligned in a leading manner. The gripper is then opened and the product edge which was held until now is released, so that the printed product comes to lie on the belt conveyor. An imbricate formation is created by way of the offset or shifted depositing of the printed products. The opening of the grippers is effected in the known manner via a release member which e.g. can be a triggering apparatus operable by control or a mechanical control cam.
In order now to ensure a trouble-free winding-up procedure as well as a likewise trouble-free winding-off procedure and an unhindered further processing of the printed products which are wound off from the product reel and fed to a conveying-away device, a continuous, gapless imbricate stream of products must be fed to the winding device.
However, it is a fact that the gripper conveyor to be conveyed can often not feed a gapless product stream. Thus individual products always occur, which must be discharged from the product stream for reasons of quality, so that corresponding gaps arise. Moreover, gaps are also created if sample examples are removed from the product stream for examination.